A Tempestuous Revival
Written by: Koznarov
Many games have esports-related in-game cosmetics, which are one way of financially supporting your favorite teams. Heroes of the Storm included some of these items with its Cheer system, back in the HGC days. Many of us still wear those portraits, banners and sprays with pride. Most of the teams featured in those cosmetics are long gone from the HotS scene, except for two of the current CCL organizations: Granit Gaming and Simplicity. However, there were some esports-related items even before the Cheers: the Nexagons.
The Nexagons are custom mounts awarded to the teams that won some major championships. Unlike the Cheer items, Nexagons were very exclusive, and only five of them were released:
Recently, one of those five legendary names has appeared again after more than three silent years. Tempest—with two of its Global Champions, the brothers Hide and Lockdown—signed up for the sixth season of Heroes of the Storm League: REVIVAL. Both players have been quite active even after HGC, but they hadn’t played under the Tempest tag since the 2018 Global Finals.
Revival Season 6
The South Korean Revival series began in 2019, but stopped after Season 5, which took place in April and May 2020. After almost two years, these events sponsored by afreecaTV are back. In this sixth edition, four teams fought for a prize pool over $4,000 in a double elimination bracket.
Tempest grabbed a couple solid victories in its first two series, arriving at the Grand Finals without dropping a single map. At the lower side of the bracket, GDR—the first team that lost against Tempest—began mirroring the success of the 2016 Summer Champions. They took down Hios.KR 2-0 and SexyHanGil 3-0. The latter was a team formed by the core of kirisaku, Rujah and SaMaT. These three players have some history together (KR Open Division, Gold Series Heroes League), but their synergy wasn’t enough to stop GDR.
Would Tempest keep its immaculate second coming—or third, if we count the time they played as Tempo Storm—or would GDR conclude its ascending trajectory? Tempest is one of the five legendary teams worthy of a Nexagon, but GDR had a player who won not one, but two Nexagon mounts: Spell, formerly known as Ttsst. The veteran tank conquered both custom mounts with MVP Black and Gen.G by winning the 2016 Spring Championship and the 2018 MSB, respectively.
Revival S6 Grand Finals: Tempest vs. GDR.
From the very beginning GDR showed what they were capable of. Tempest tried everything to stop them, but they could only take one game in the whole bo5 series. By winning Revival Season 6, Spell and Gondar became the first players to win three editions of this tournament (Season 3 as The Black and Season 4 as Carrot). Before this series, they were tied with Lockdown, who won seasons 4 (alongside them) and 5. Despite this 3-title tie, Gondar keeps being the one who has played more finals. He has been in five of the six grand finals, missing only Season 1.
Revival Season 6 was a blast! What are your favorite esports-related in-game items?
